Daily roundup 17 July: Children's doctors, age checks, and smacking

A shortfall in the number of children's junior doctors in the UK should act as a "wake-up call", the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has warned. The BBC reports that an RCPCH study found that children's units are struggling to fill nearly one in five places on their rotas. "Large gaps in the workforce have a serious impact on doctors and vital hospital services," RCPCH's Dr Simon Clark said.


The first steps in forcing pornography websites to check that users are older than 18 will be be announced by the government this week in an effort to make the internet safer for children. The Guardian reports that websites flouting new rules, which are set to be part of the Digital Economy Act, could find that a regulator has told their internet service providers to block access to them.


Scotland's position on smacking children is "untenable in international human rights terms", the country's children's commissioner has said. The Scotsman reports that Bruce Adamson said legally allowing parents to smack their children puts Scotland at odds with the law in the majority of Europe. Current legislation in Scotland enables parents to use a defence of justifiable assault for hitting their children.


Plans by the Welsh government to ban the smacking of children would be an unprecedented power grab that would criminalise thousands of ordinary parents, campaigners have said. Wales Online reports that the Welsh government is seeking cross-party support for legislation to end the defence of "reasonable chastisement" when allegations of assault are made against parents or guardians. A campaign group calling itself Be Reasonable has launched a petition opposing the proposals.


The number of pupils in England's secondary schools is set to rise by almost a fifth within the next decade. The BBC reports that government figures show there are expected to be around half a million more secondary age children by 2026. The increase is being fuelled by the baby boom of the early 2000s, which means growing numbers of pupils moving through the school system.


Less than a fifth of children get the recommended level of exercise by the time they leave primary school, data suggests. The Independent reports that between the age brackets of five to seven and 11 to 12, there is a 39 per cent drop in the proportion being moderately active for at least 60 minutes every day.